THIS WEEK: Two more non-conference games are on tap for the sixth-ranked Fighting Sioux this weekend, when No. 17 Maine visits Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The puck drops at 7:37 p.m. on Friday and 7:07 p.m. Saturday.

The series marks UND's final non-conference action before opening the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) schedule next weekend at Wisconsin.

MEDIA COVERAGE: All Fighting Sioux men's hockey games, home and away, can be heard on 96.1 FM (The Fox) and on stations across the Fighting Sioux Hockey Network. Veteran broadcaster Tim Hennessy is in his 31st season as the voice of the Fighting Sioux. He is joined during home games by color analyst Steve Olson.

Video webcasts for each game can also be purchased at FightingSioux.com, where FREE audio and live stats are also available.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Receive real-time updates during all UND men's hockey games at www.twitter.com/undmhockey.

Fans can also follow the action via live chat at FightingSioux.com, hosted by Grand Forks Herald hockey writer Brad Schlossman and UND media relations director Jayson Hajdu during every home and road game.

TICKET INFORMATION: Single-game tickets remain available for Friday and Saturday's games against Maine.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-800-745-3000, logging on to ticketmaster.com or by visiting the UND Ticket Office at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.

The REA box office is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

ABOUT MAINE: Maine split a pair of Hockey East games to open the regular season last weekend. The Black Bears dropped the season-opener to Merrimack 2-1 on Friday night, before rebounding to defeat Northeastern 6-3 on Sunday afternoon.

Maine is led by senior forward Bryan Flynn, who had a 5-point weekend with a goal and four assists. He was later named Hockey East Player of the Week for the sixth time in his career.

Dan Sullivan and Martin Ouellette have each started one game between the pipes for Maine, with Ouellette earning Sunday's victory in a 25-save performance against Northeastern.

The Black Bears return 19 letterwinners from last year's team that swept UND in Orono in October.

MAINE Coaching Staff: Head coach Tim Whitehead (Hamilton ‘85) is in his 11th year at Maine and will coach his 400th game behind the Black Bears bench on Friday night. He is 217-139-43 (.598).

In his 16th season overall as a collegiate head coach, Whitehead is 293-234-54 (.551).

SERIES HISTORY: UND is 11-8-1 (.575) all-time against Maine, including a 6-3-0 home record.

However, Maine has won the last four meetings, including a sweep in Orono last October, and a sweep in Grand Forks during the 2006-07 season.

UND's last wins over Maine came during the 2004-05 season, Dave Hakstol's first regular season games as Sioux head coach. The Sioux swept the October series in Orono with 4-3 (overtime) and 3-1 wins.

UND'S LAST ACTION: The Sioux opened the season last weekend by hosting the Ice Breaker Tournament in Grand Forks, defeating Air Force 4-3 on Friday before falling 6-2 to fifth-ranked Boston College on Saturday.

BC scored five unanswered goals on Saturday to erase a 2-1 Sioux lead. Knight scored a shorthanded goal, while sophomore defenseman Derek Forbort (Duluth, Minn.) collected his first career goal with a power-play tally.

Nelson was UND's lone representative on the all-tournament team.

POLL POSITION: UND is ranked No. 6 in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls (page 3) released on Monday.

The Sioux had been ranked No. 3 in both preseason polls before splitting a pair of games last weekend at the Ice Breaker Tournament.

RANK AND FILE: UND is in the midst of a stretch in which it will play seven of nine games against nationally ranked opponents, according to the latest USCHO.com poll.

The Sioux faced fifth-ranked (now No. 3) Boston College last Saturday and will host No. 17 Maine before traveling to No. 18 Wisconsin. After returning home to host unranked St. Cloud State (Oct. 28-29), the Sioux will travel to No. 14 Minnesota (Nov. 4-5).

Eleven of UND's 17 first-half regular season games will be against teams currently ranked in the USCHO.com top 20 poll.

FULL NELSON: Sophomore forward Brock Nelson (Warroad, Minn.) opened the 2011-12 season in style, putting together the first 3-point performance of his career in UND's 4-3 win over Air Force last Friday.

Nelson scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the final 6:12 of regulation to rally the Sioux from a 3-2 third period deficit. He also set up Corban Knight's goal early in the first period.

A KNIGHT'S TALE: Center Corban Knight (Jr., High River, Alberta) enjoyed a record-breaking year in the faceoff circle last season and picked up last weekend right where he left off.

Last season, Knight won 59.9 percent of his faceoffs, breaking Zach Parise's school record of 59.3. In two games last weekend at the Ice Breaker Tournament, Knight won an outstanding 66.7 percent (32-of-48) of his draws. He accounted for nearly half (32-of-67) of UND's faceoff wins over the two games.

Knight also enjoyed a 3-point weekend with two goals and one assist. His goal on Saturday was a short-handed effort, the second of his career.

EIDS WIDE SHUT: Senior goalie Brad Eidsness (Chestermere, Alberta) joined elite company last Saturday when he came off the bench in UND's loss to Boston College.

The relief effort marked the 90th career appearance for Eidsness, making him just the sixth goalie in Sioux history to reach that milestone:

Eidsness is also on the verge of becoming the 10th goalie in UND history with 2,000 career saves:

Eidsness ranks fifth all-time at UND in career goals against average (2.45), sixth in save percentage (.904), seventh in career wins (50), and is tied for eighth in shutouts (four). He also ranks 10th in career winning percentage (.657).

LOWE'S AND BEHOLD: Earlier this month, Brad Eidsness (Sr., Chestermere, Alberta) was named one of 20 national candidates for the prestigious Lowe's Senior CLASS Award.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - community, classroom, character and competition.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.

On the ice, Eidsness is a two-time All-WCHA selection and is one of only two goalies in UND history (with Karl Goehring) to have won 20 games in each of his first two years.

In the classroom, Eidsness was the 2010-11 men's hockey recipient of the NCAA Elite 88 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average at his or her sport's championship site. Already in graduate school pursuing a master's degree in business administration, Eidsness received his bachelor's degree in entrepreneurship last spring. He is a two-time Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Scholar-Athlete and a two-time Academic All-WCHA selection.

An active member of the community, Eidsness has logged significant hours of community service with a variety of organizations in each of his first three years at UND, including the Sioux Kids Club, the National Honor Society, the Northlands Rescue Mission, Pucks for Plates and more.

The 20 candidates will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, Division I men's coaches and fans who will select one finalist who best exemplifies excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.

Eidsness' former teammate, Chay Genoway, was a finalist last season for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award and was named to the 2010-11 Lowe's Senior CLASS Award All-America first team.

MAKING HIS MARK: Nine freshmen made their collegiate debuts for UND last weekend, but only one, forward Mark MacMillan (Penticton, British Columbia), found the scoresheet at the Ice Breaker Tournament.

MacMillan collected a power-play assist in each game, first in Friday's 4-3 win over Air Force, then again in Saturday's 6-2 loss to fifth-ranked Boston College.

A fourth-round draft pick of Montreal in 2010, MacMillan recorded 57 points (21g, 36a) in 40 games last season with the Penticton Vees of the BCHL.

Forbort unleashed a point shot through traffic while on the power play, finding the back of the net at 5:23 of the second period. The goal put UND ahead 2-1 in an eventual 6-2 loss.

Forbort also had a power-play assist in Friday's 4-3 win over Air Force.

Last season, Forbort led all WCHA rookie defensemen with a plus-21, and led all UND freshmen with 15 assists, the most by a Sioux rookie blueliner since current Ottawa Senator Brian Lee had 23 in 2005-06.

GET CARTER: When junior forward Carter Rowney (Sexsmith, Alberta) scored a power-play goal late in the first period of Friday's 4-3 win over Air Force, he ended a personal nine-game goal-scoring drought.

Prior to that goal, Rowney had last scored in UND's 6-0 win at Colorado College on Jan. 29, 2011.

The goal on Friday night was Rowney's first career power-play tally.

OH DANNY BOY: With three assists through the first two games of the season, junior forward Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) has continued his consistent production level from the second half of last season.

After opening the 2010-11 season with just five points (1g, 4a) in his first 17 games, Kristo has since amassed 26 points (7g, 19a) in his last 19 games.

Kristo was a team-leading plus-3 in UND's two games at last weekend's Ice Breaker Tournament.

SUPER DAVE: With 188 wins behind the Sioux bench, eighth-year head coach Dave Hakstol is closing in on becoming only the third coach in UND history to win 200. The others are Gasparini (392 wins, 1978-94) and Dean Blais (262, 1994-2004).

With 32 wins last season, UND has reached the 20-win plateau in each of head coach Dave Hakstol's first seven seasons behind the Sioux bench.

Hakstol's streak of seven straight 20-win seasons is the second-longest in UND history, behind only John "Gino" Gasparini's 13 in a row (1978-79 to 1990-91). Last season's total of 32 wins was the third-highest in program history.

In 43 games last season, Lamoureux established career highs in points (17) and assists (14) while earning his second straight WCHA All-Academic selection. In 109 career games, Lamoureux has amassed 13 goals and 22 assists. UND is 12-0-0 over the last three years when Lamoureux scores a goal.

Interestingly, Lamoureux's younger sister, Jocelyne, was named captain of UND's women's team earlier this month.

It is UND's largest freshman class since 2005-06, when the Sioux brought in 13 freshmen. That class included future NHLers Jonathan Toews, T.J. Oshie, Taylor Chorney and Brian Lee, as well as 2006-07 Hobey Baker Award winner Ryan Duncan.

MANY HAPPY RETURNS: The Sioux welcome back 14 letterwinners from last year's team that advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four, including six forwards, five defensemen and all three goalies.

UND, however, must replace six of its seven top scorers from last year, including NCAA goal-scoring leader and Hobey Baker Award finalist Matt Frattin, and two-time All-America defenseman Chay Genoway.

The Sioux graduated seven seniors last year, and lost two juniors to the professional ranks.

Grimaldi was taken in the second round (33rd overall) by Florida, while Simpson went in the fourth round (92nd overall) to Edmonton.
Simpson's father, Craig, won two Stanley Cups with Edmonton during his 10-year NHL career. He is now the lead color analyst on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) Hockey Night in Canada.

Additionally, nearly every member of the support staff is also a graduate of UND, including director of hockey operations Pat Swanson (2002), athletic trainer and strength coach Mark Poolman (1992), team physician Dr. Greg Greek and media relations director Jayson Hajdu (2000).